 Thank you for staying so late and for listening to me speak. As Muir mentioned, I'm a children's writer and I thought I'd share with you a little bit about my journey and my goals in creating literature for kids and hopefully changing the narrative for American Muslims through this media. And I won't talk at you too long because it's so late, but I'll just introduce myself quickly, share my work, and then hopefully we can have a conversation because I'd love to hear about what you all are thinking about these topics. A little bit about me. I was born and raised in Maryland of Pakistani heritage. My parents immigrated from Pakistan before I was born. Of course I was raised an American Muslim. I was a big reader for those girls in the audience. I loved to read as a kid and I also loved to write for fun. I spent a lot of time writing letters and poems. I actually had a family newspaper that I'll share with you in a moment. As I mentioned, I spent a lot of time reading. I spent a lot of time at the library. My mom would take us every few weeks to the public library with shopping bags from the grocery store that she would fill up with books. And these are some of the stories that I read growing up. For those of you who can see them, they all have female protagonists. They're all stories about siblings. Each of these characters had modern sisters. They're all very family-centric. And I read everything. I read fantasy and science fiction and mysteries. But these are the stories that I gravitated to the most and really connected with and read over and over again. And these are the characters that I still think about now, so many years later. But there was something missing in all of these stories that I was reading and that was me. I never saw myself in any of the books that I wrote when I was growing up. I never encountered a Pakistani American child or a Muslim character in any of the books that I read, which was very typical of that time. And I also mentioned that I used to write for fun. And I had this family newspaper that I called The Chronicles and I actually found issues of the paper that are yellowed, notebook paper, pages where I had stories that I wrote about my family. And it's interesting to go back all these years later and read these issues. And what was very striking to me was that in all of them, I don't mention anything about my culture, my religion, the food that we ate at home, the language we spoke, the Islamic education I was getting. If anyone was to pick up that paper and read, apart from the names that were mentioned, you would think that you were reading about any white American person in almost all of them. And I think that was reflected because that was what I was reading. And I don't think I felt like I had the license to write about the issues, because I think they were worth sharing or worth telling because no one else was writing the stories, so why would anybody want to read them? And even though I wasn't aware of how much that lack of representation impacted me, now as an adult I think I can see the impact that it had. And growing up as a Muslim in America, 30 years ago, 35 years ago when I was a child in elementary school, I went through public education system in Maryland, which was actually a very good system, a good county. And at that time growing up, as we know for those of us who grew up in this country during that time, Islam was very relatively unknown. We were pretty much under the radar. And there was very little understanding of our traditions on holidays. When I was in school, my teachers didn't even know what Ramadan was most of the time. When I was missing school because of the Eid holiday, I couldn't even say that I'm missing school for Eid. I didn't use it by name. I would write the note that my parents would sign it and say, please excuse her for her religious holiday because I didn't bother to refer to it by name. I remember when I was a sophomore at high school, my teacher asked where my family was from. And when I said, wow, she said, oh, that's nice. Where is that? That's just a tough thing. And now looking back, you know, it's interesting to make it away was a blessing to be invisible. But as a child, you want to be seen. You want to, you want people to understand you. And it hurts to be invisible, especially in your teacher's eyes. And I remember the first time being aware of Muslims in the media. And that was during the Iran hostage crisis in 1978, between 1978 and 80 when I was between 8 and 10 years old. And I remember even as a child being as young as I was, you know, feeling that shame that these are my people doing these things that are getting all this negative attention. But at the same time, I think the difference was that as far as the country, even this image that I have about this says, deport all Iranians, right? It doesn't say all Muslims. And I feel like there was that distinction that it was political. It was a certain group of Muslims. They were the Iranians, and it didn't spread to all American Muslims. So I went on to, you know, Trump's being so very visible to obviously growing up and working in public health communications. But I had the chance to start writing books for kids about 16 years ago. And these are some of the first books that I published. And I had nothing to do with Islam or being a Muslim. I wrote about space and spies and the PNX book. We got into growing up. But at the same time, I was very inspired by other books that I was finding, because I was also a new mother at the time. And I was reading books to my kids and people taking my kids to the library and looking for those stories that I didn't have when I was a kid. And sadly, they still didn't exist. I found books about Chinese American families. I found books about Sammy's spiders celebrating his first Hanukkah with a family. And I thought, where, you know, it was jealous when I saw these books and thought, where are the books for our community? They just didn't exist. And at the same time, 9-11 had just happened. And of course, as we all know, we knew that the world would never be the same for American Muslims. And at the time, a lot of things were being said. A lot of confusion, a lot of curiosity. All of a sudden, people wanted to know more about who we were as a community. And at the same time, somebody said, Islam is a vibrant faith. Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslims. We respect the faith. We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not. Our enemy doesn't follow the great traditions of Islam. They hijack the great religion. Anyone else who said that? That's right. George Bush. Who would think that? Who would now look back on this and be the dignified statesman that he now seems to be? But, you know, he, at the time, it was a great service that's made up to our community that he did make that distinction very clearly. I know he went on to say something about Islam being a religion of peace and about all, I think he said something like, all ours is a country based upon tolerance and we welcome people of all faiths in America. He said that in another event. And he made it very clear that American Muslims were not the enemy that we welcome, et cetera. And we know that's not the case today. So all this is happening and there's always curiosity about who Muslims were. And I wanted to create something to help change that. So I started thinking about the audience. I wanted to reach schools and libraries and especially public schools that really had very little resources. I wanted Muslim kids to have what they call the industry a mirror book where they pick up a book and see themselves reflected. And I also wanted window books which are for non-Muslims to be able to look in and see and understand our culture and our traditions. And the beauty of picture books and children's books in general are that you really reach more than just the children who are reading them. You're reaching parents who are reading to their children and with their children you're reaching educators, librarians and so it has this ripple effect into the community. So the first book I published came out in 2008 by the movement. It's a simple book about Yasmin and her family celebrating the month of Ramadan. They're watching the moon change shape over the month and they celebrate Eid and Yasmin gets a special surprise, a spoiler, it's a telescope to help you watch for a month. And I woven things like the lunar cycle and the change in shape of the moon so that teachers could use that in addition to learning about Ramadan they could also do less than the lunar cycle. And this is an interior page of the book. A few years later I published Golden Dose and Silver Lanterns and this book is about a Muslim book of colors which is very simple but inverse. It's not holiday specific although I do mention Ramadan and Eid in it. And in this book people can learn about objects and things that are special to Muslims through the color. And a couple examples are blue is the hijab mom likes to wear as a scarf she uses to cover her hair. So very simple verse. Black is the ink I used to draw the Arabic letters which that's spelled it all along. And I wanted to introduce the Quran and the Qur'an and the Khufi and there are very similar concepts and objects. I also wrote other books that had nothing to do with Islam like about Mars and Amazon but the reason I mention this is that I tried to include diverse characters in every book that I could because apart from books about Muslims it's also important for Muslim characters to appear in books about anything. So in this book about the Amazon I included an Egyptian doctor named Rania Salamon as one of the characters and in my book about Mars there's an astronaut from India named Anis Salamon so I think that's another important tool to increase people's awareness of Muslims. And then last year as many of you know I was thrilled when I wrote Isra'ul-Qarish George people wonder how did that happen how did you write Qarish George and the publisher actually approached me to show you about Muslims and they asked me if they thought if I thought Muslims would be open and interested in having Qarish George celebrate and of course growing up as I did and knowing how much I would have loved a book like this I was growing up I said with confidence that I thought Muslims would be overjoyed and they were and the book got a lot of attention in the media and I think people were at this time so excited to see something positive happening Muslims attached to it because sadly when the book came out last year the election cycle was in full swing reviewing the damaging rhetoric that was being said about Muslims and the mood was very very different from what it had been when under the Bush administration and of course I was wrong. So this book is a very simple book about Qarish George celebrating Ramadan with his friends and the focus is on community and family and charity like most Americans do and he gets into a little lucky trouble like usual and this is the scene where they're having dinner after after it's dark and celebrating the chocolate coming in at us but as we know as I mentioned pulling in a slump for me later was is a lion in the wall and growing in this country sadly and there was actually a new study that came out from ISP this too for social policy and understanding that was reporting in PR a few weeks ago and then 42% of Muslim children in America are reporting in discrimination in school and of that I think almost a quarter of it I might be wrong on that number but a high percentage of that was actually from their teachers so not even just their peers but we know that anti-Muslim violence and vandalism has skyrocketed I think five most have grown to the ground this year alone which is terrifying in 2015 there were 78 reported incidents of mosques being targeted in some way and we know that you know just anecdotally if you're just watching this probably double what happened in 2016 and at the same time that all of this is happening it blows my mind that 60% of Americans still say they don't know which I find to believe and I think maybe they know they know Muslim maybe they imagine it was them to look a certain way or act a certain way and you're up with Middle Eastern or you're not very smart that you're not Muslim but that's what they think and I think obviously with that we know that what people don't know something they don't understand something that is easy for them to be displayed in the media and the power of storytelling is so important because we can refute we can refute facts and we can argue back and forth as much as we want whether as long as it's a religion of peace whether you know terrorism or Muslim whatever the issue is but we can't know and deny our stories and if we give them the opportunity to get to know us especially those who say they don't know us through our stories hopefully that creates compassion and tolerance where maybe it isn't and changes people's hearts and minds and as I mentioned for the kids out there representation really matters and I think now more than ever so I was really really thrilled when Amna's voice was published just a couple of months ago and as Maria mentioned it's the first publication of a new imprint called Salon Reads which is put up by Simon Schuster a division within a large culture and is specialized in different texts so they dedicated an entire imprint to books about this so we can tell our old stories and they're recognizing and they initially are largely really recognizing that the stories are important that they need to be told and they aren't because most of the children aren't seeing themselves activated and although it's slowly changing it hasn't changed enough so it's looking out in March and it's about a 12 year old girl named Amna who is a sixth grader she's a Pakistani American her parents are immigrants she started those schools for the first time and I tried to create a character who's really reliable that any little girl just like the books that I shared earlier that I read that really I didn't see myself in but I had stuff in common with those girls the same way I want anybody who thinks that this book to feel like they can identify with Amna or have something in common with her she has a best friend who's Korean American and she's a very talented singer and has a beautiful singing voice but she's extremely sharp and afraid to show it in the story she's dealing with her friends changing I feel like that's something most middle school aged children deal with is who are my friends and where do I fit in her best friend is also becoming friendly who wasn't very nice to them in the past and that's making her confused her older brother Mustafa is rebelling a little bit at home which is causing some tension her uncle's visiting from Pakistan who is much more conservative than her family and is sort of a father figure to her father and that's making her parents feel pressure to represent there's a broad competition that her parents want her to compete in and she, as I mentioned before very stage shy would love to have the confidence to sing if it doesn't and I introduced the idea that even though it introduces some controversy in the larger context of music and whether or not music is encouraged or not even encouraged but discouraged or forbidden in this law and I did that purposefully because it's a in my mind a smaller issue of terrorism or something like that but a way to demonstrate that Muslims are not a model where we don't follow their practice exact same way and that there are disagreements even within families on how we choose to practice and that that idea is introduced in a subtle way that obviously can make people understand that it translates into bigger issues as well so during the story throughout the course of the story that changes of course as a writer you want a character who grows and evolves and working and helping out so it's a really not satisfying story so I'm going to learn some stripes of her community love her family who her friends really are the power inside of her to make a difference and she really gains some confidence and I'm hoping that readers gain insight into an American who is in community because the book takes you into a mosque you meet the emul you go to her Sunday school you get a glimpse into prayer but a lot of Americans don't have access to they don't understand what really happens at a mosque and are mosques really breeding grounds for terrorists or not is there creeping Sharia and happening or whatever creeping Sharia is so they don't know what an emul does and so to see the emul in the story joking around with the kids and being an example to them and arranging this competition and encouraging them to compete and think of what our communities look like um to get a taste of Pakistani culture lots of soon people say not to read this book on an empty stomach because they make you hungry and you realize that you're just the food obsessives I am but again like the idea that we want compassion and understanding for our community and in the book even though I wrote it four and a half years ago the first draft that's how long it took for it to actually be published I introduced the idea of mosque feminism and the community that you get to know and love with Aminah and her family is attacked and when I wrote the book I was on the board of ISP the organization that I mentioned that did this study on belief and you know I was aware of incidents that were happening around the country and I was very concerned about it and I thought it was a way for people to understand from the girl, the character how damaging that is what it would feel like to have to be this victim of an attack like that and it's unfortunate now that people are pointing this book and saying how timely, how relevant it is and it's a really unfortunate coincidence because I wish it wasn't and I wish that something that happened and doesn't happen anymore but sadly it's the opposite and I sat the book in Milwaukee, Wisconsin even though I'm in Maryland outside of D.C. right now in a D.C. suburb and I didn't imagine that this could happen in my hometown being as diverse as it is being as tolerant of the community as it is and my husband grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and so I knew that community through his family and I also knew that it was the site of a terrible attack on the state temple some years ago and I was never caring about that where six people were killed so that's why I chose that as the study two weeks before this book came out my local mosque received threats along with many of our country and we know that the climate is not very friendly these are just some other titles about this office to demonstrate the variety that's out there but these books and my books and other books really need is the support of the community we have to show the publishing industry that making an investment in something like Salon Reads was worth it tonight because if not they won't keep doing it right at the end of the day it's dollars and cents for these publishers they have to make profit and there's a lot of interest right now and in fact since Trump was elected there's been extra attention to get more Muslim voices published there's agents who are specifically asking for Muslim writers to come and submit their work and it's almost part of this resistance that we made for our voices out there but we have to give them content but we also need to support the books that are out there so I think whatever you can do not just mine but Muslim books that are mainstream published the ones that Muslim press are amazing we need them we need those books to teach our kids how to practice their faith but the books that are out there for anyone to consider the ones that you find in the libraries we need to support those books and donate them if we can if you aren't Muslim too for your teachers for plastering if you can write reviews that's huge publishers read reviews that people leave and on Amazon and elsewhere and of course read to your kids spend time reading with your kids and they get their feedback on what they think about these stories and what it means to them because they're lucky to have them really compared to what we were years ago I'll stop just stay in touch and connect with me on social media but I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything or any questions just a quick question where we can get the books from that website or can we get it from the website so this website is just to connect with me so if you're interested in what I'm working on or things like that that's where you can work it in touch with me that's how my books are available on bookstores and also on all of our news channels like Amazon or Barnes & Noble I always try to encourage people to support independent booksellers in Fossil but I know it's hard so anywhere in Charlotte you can find it there's a lot here all the work that you do I have a couple of daughters so I think but how to keep them inspired when they get older to keep writing it's amazing to hear about young writers like I mentioned I'm sorry I was talking kind of adult level but when I was little I loved to write and I mentioned poems and plays and the family newspaper that I showed you so I think when you're young you never know you love that love for writing when you're young you keep doing it I think sometimes when you're in school like those school ages you find especially upper middle school high school it's kind of hard to keep kids reading that's when they have so much school work and it's hard to read for pleasure but I think if you develop that passion when kids are young they pick it up again later and really try to find opportunities there's like great writing contests for kids to enter into that's a nice way to motivate them essay contests sharing work with even family and friends is a way to keep them encouraged email the story that your kids are writing and get feedback from friends and family and encouragement things like that I think are important and then mother daughter book club is another fun thing or even a writing group for kids would be a nice way to keep motivated so I'll keep writing when you for representation yeah so high school you mentioned that we're born and raised here at the time that you were growing up and the kids now that are growing up 10 years old do you see a change in them in terms of an identity of being Muslim is there a difference between then and now are they more open about it or are they more conservative about their faith and character it depends on many factors looking at my own situation as I mentioned when I grew up it wasn't even that I was hiding it it was just that nobody really knew what being Muslim was outside of the community so when I was the only Muslim in my class I had no share of that experience with or anything and I mentioned that Alvina's best friend is a Korean American I had a Korean American best friend as well because she was another minority who I could relate to on different levels of having a parent I think it's different now from I live in the same area that I was raised in now and I have two kids who are now 12 and 16 and two boys and looking at them I do see a big difference my peers, my someone who was in second grade had three other Muslim boys in his class which was huge and I couldn't imagine that when I was growing up the teacher had we went in and read my book during Ramadan and that was something that never would have happened when I was a kid I do ask my kids, I think having grown up here I'm very aware of what they're feeling what they're thinking and do they feel different and I don't think they're as connected to Pakistani culture as I was growing up obviously having immigrant parents but I feel like they're more secure in their Muslim identity and for me that was something that is very important to me in this book too to write it from the perspective of a child who's not embarrassed or ashamed of who she is because I feel like there's a lot of diversity stories where there is a first or second generation American child who's either born to children of parents and there's that oh my parents face with an accent or they cook by their side food in my lunch box I think that story's been done and I really wanted to write a character who was unapologetically Muslim and of course there's things happen like going to school smelling like Masala I mean that happens and no one likes it but you know, in her essence she's proud of who she is and it's like an issue of things like friends and family and etc and I think for me maybe I drew from my own kids and the kids that I know who are a bit more like that they seem more balanced and our communities are more established too like we didn't have something like this when I was growing up we used to rent a high school so I think it's progress I hope it's progress in the right direction and our kids are facing challenges that we couldn't have to face if it worked out to daily problems I'm doing a project Islamphobia for school and I I got some things that preventions but what do you think you can prevent from Islamphobia spray? How do we prevent it? I don't know I think it's a really good question I mean I definitely think getting our stories out like I mentioned is one way to humanize Muslims I think when people don't know us as people as community members and friends and only think of what they hear and use and believe what they hear then it's all ISIS terrorism and they start to fight that with Muslims I think it's important for people to also see stories from all different types of Muslims because that's another thing that people just don't see they don't realize that the largest group of Muslims in America are African-Americans or that the largest immigrant community is Pakistani-American and that Arabs are a smaller minority of Muslims in America but that's what everybody thinks that all Muslims are speaking Arabic are from the Middle East so I think having stories of all types of representation I think obviously that's what I do so this is what you think in terms of other things I think we need more mainstream Muslims in the media just obviously in the news itself but even in pop culture I think having more characters and I think starting to happen you see random characters in TV shows or movies and even it's exciting to see commercials with people wearing a job and I think the more we can do to just normalize and show that we're part of society and of course each of us are ambassadors being active in our community so I think running for office I think it's huge but being your child's PTA being active in interfaith but also whatever you need to be out there so that people know that you're Muslim but you're many other things I think it's really important in terms of open housing that means that the local people also can see how more characters can understand yeah absolutely I think interfaith and welcoming people and just from our personal perspective we're not relying ourselves I think personally even me seeing the way librarians and educators have championed this book and other books of mine this book I think because it's the new imprints, long raids it's been beautiful to see the way people have stepped up and celebrated this and not Muslims I'm talking about and I feel like we have so much support for our other minority groups I was invited last week to people of the book fair at a synagogue in DC and it was so lovely that there were three Jewish authors and then they invited me to come and I was invited to the National Cathedral where they had a chapel on Islam for their little kids from school up to third grade and they invited me I think that we as a community because for the first time we're being targeted the way we are we have to come out of our shells and we have to also ally ourselves with other marginalized communities like the Black Lives Matter movement LGBTQ like we have we can't discriminate and and think our rights are laws that matter and it's okay for other rights to be trampled we have to unify with the Jewish community other minority communities and hopefully find what's happening because they are allies and I feel that